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SYSTEM FOR HEATING FREIGHT CARS. No. 326,809. Patented Sept. 22,

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SYSTEM FOR HEATING FREIGHT CARS.

No. 326.809. Patented Sept. 22, 1885.

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A. B. VANDEMARK. SYSTEM FOR HEATING FREIGHT CARS. No. 326,809. Patented Sept. 22, 1885.

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l ATENT OFFICE.

ARCHIBALD BQVANDEMARK, OF NEXV YORK, N. Y.

SYSTEM FOR HEATING FREIGHT-CARS.

EPECIPICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 326,809, dated September 22, 1885.

Application filed November 2, 1888. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARCHIBALD B. VAN- DEMARK, of the city of New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Means for Heating Freight-Cars, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in illustration of the same.

The object of my invention is to provide means for surrounding perishable material in freight-cars with a temperature that will prevent freezing of the same while in transit; and the invention consists in means for circulating heated air through a freight-car without bringing such air into immediate contact with the freight in the car, as I will now proceed to particularly set forth and claim.

In the drawings, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a freight-car embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section taken in the plane of line Y Y, Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a vertical section on line X X, Fig. 2, with part of the lining removed at the right. Fig. 4 is a vertical section on the line Z Z, Fig. 2, on a larger scale. Fig. 5 is a vertical longitudinal section of a safety oil-tank for use in connection with a form of heat-generator I prefer to use. Fig. 6 is a similar section of part of the heatgenerator. Fig. 7 is an enlarged vertical section of part of the car in the plane of line X X, Fig. 2. Fig. 8 is a cross-section of part of the heater on a still larger scale to show the preferred form of heater; and Fig. 9 is a plan view of the bottom of the car with the false bottom removed and the heater shown in section on line X X, Fig. 7.

Externally the car is of usual construction, but internally I extend the lining E up to the ceiling at sides and ends, and provide a sliding or hinged grain-door, F, with the upper half, G, hinged to open up against the ceiling. The lining makes communicating spaces D and M at the ends and sides of the car,and the outer door is provided with vents or outlets N, as usual.

Beneath the center of the car, and suspended from its sills, I arrange a box or trunk, A,

shaped to conform to the available space between the wheels and truss-rods, which box has an opening in the car floor or bottom B. This trunk has inlets a, suitably located for admitting the external air, and within it is arranged a heat-generator, K, of approved construction, and consisting, preferably, of a vapor-burning apparatus, such as set forth in my application for Letters Patent for the same, filed March 9, 12585, Serial No. 158,154. This heater has, by preference, a circuitous chamber, K, attached, through which the products of combustion pass by pipes L L to the spaces and between the usual inner and outer doors, and finally out into the atmosphere through the vents or outlets N, this chamber subserving the further purpose of giving a very large heatingsurface.

Upon the floor or bottom B, I secure 1ongitudinally of the car a number of timbers or partitions, B, ending short of the lining at the ends of the car to leave passages G, and projecting over the trunk A without break, and upon these partitions I lay another or false floor, B covering the entire space within the lining between the sides and ends of the car. The spaces made by the partitions B, floors B and B and sides and ends of the cars, I designate fines, and have lettered them J J and H H H, the fines J J communicating with flues H H H only through the passages O. The fines J J extend the whole length of the car, but open into the top of the trunk A at I, while the fines H are cut off on each side of the trunk by vertical partitions H H, extending from the floor B to or nearly to the bottom of the trunk, and each there opening into the trunk, as at 0. Vertical strips H placed between the partitions H and the outer wall of the trunk, continue the fiues H H H into the trunk, as indicated by dotted lines, Fig. 4:. The ascending heat will escape from the trunk through the parts I into the fines J at each side of the car, and taking the direction indicated by the arrows in Fig. 2will return through the fines H to the bottom of the trunk, according to its reduced temperature, will be then reheated and rise through the ports I, and go the rounds of the fines and trunk again. The fiues open into the spaces ICO D and M and let the heat into said spaces; but the draft through the trunk is sufficient to create and maintain a circulation in the flues, as described. The door-space will be heated by running the pipes L thereinto.

The heat is not admitted direct-1y into the car, but only by radiation, and its beneficial effects are had on a perishable cargosay, fruits and Vegetables transported in winter by surrounding the cargo with a heated jacket formed by lining the floor, sides, and ends of the car, as set forth.

I have found that the most efficient and economical fuel available for this sort of heating is any of the hydrocarbon oils; but, owing to the inflammable nature of such a fuel,it can be used only when surrounded with proper safeguards. I use a tank, 1?, for containing the supply, which tank is affixed to the under side of the car and provided with a ventpipe, Q, one end of which opens outside the tank at one end, and the other passes through the tank to a diagonally-opposite point and issurmounted by a cap, R. It is obvious that .no matter what the position of the tank its contents cannot escape through this vent, and hence danger from the escape of the oil in case of accident is avoided. The oil is supplied to the burner T through pipe S, being first vaporized and injected through injector T". The supply of liquid fuel should be governed with the greatest nicety, and I have found an efficient-automatic governor to comprise a metal strip, W, laid in one of the flues H and secured at one end in bracket W which strip will expand and contract according to the temperature in said flue. This strip passes over a drum, 0*, and is connected at its other end to a wheel, '0, of a valve or cock, U, in the supply-pipe S, to permit a spring, U ,t0 act to reduce the opening in the valve, and hence the supply of fuel to the burner as the said strip expands under high temperature. As the strip contracts under falling temperature, it pulls, the valve open against the resistance of the spring, and thus admits a larger supply of fuel. The heatgenerator is thus automatically operated and controlled, and a very equable temperature may be maintained in the car.

What I claim is 1. The combination, with a lined freightcar having a system of flues in its bottom, of a trunk suspended from the said bottom and communicating with said flues and the spaces between the lining and outer walls of the car, a heat-generator contained in said trunk, airinlets to said trunk, and an automatic heatregulating device for controlling theaction of the heat-generator,substantial] y as described.

' 2. A freight-car having a raised false floor and the space beneath the same divided longitudinally of the car into outside and center flues, combined with atrunk suspended from the bottom of the car with which the flues communicate, the outside flues leading out from the top of the trunk and returning through the, center flues to the bottom of said trunk, and a heat-generator and air-inlets in said trunk, substantially as set forth.

3. A car-heating apparatus'having a liquidfuel supply-tank, P, provided with the ventpipe Q, opening out from the said tank at one end and extending the length of said tank and crossing it to a diagonally-opposite corner orend' and having its end at such corner or end opening within a cap surmounting said tank, substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signedmynamefin presence of two witnesses,this 31st day of October, 1883.

A. B VANDEMARK.

Witnesses.

ROBT. W. MATTHEWS, A. W. ALM VIs'r. 

